From: pdc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Paul Crowley)
Subject: Re: PHIL: VR--Are we really the first?
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1992 15:55:16 GMT
Message-ID: <BwFG86.M4E@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Do they make a washing powder called Caliban Automatic?



In article <1992Oct18.175509.29341@u.washington.edu> coleman@rocky.CS.UCLA.EDU (Mike Coleman) writes:

[Posits VR simulation indistinguishable from reality]
>The obvious next question is: Is there any scientific or philosophical reason
>to think that we are not *in* such a simulation *now*??

>P.S.  Please pardon me if this has already been discussed.  ;-)

Er, yes.  In effect, this is what Descartes discussed, and he
concluded that the only thing he could be certain of was "I think
therefore I am".  If it is true, there's nothing we can do about it,
so ignore it.  You can't possibly hope to reason about what the *real*
world might be like at all, if this isn't it.

  __                                ____
\/ o\ Paul Crowley pdc@dcs.ed.ac.uk \  /
/\__/ "I'm the boy without a soul"   \/